Rapid Assessment of the Microbiological Quality of Poultry Carcasses Using ATP Bioluminescence

The meat industry is in need of faster and more reliable methods to determine microbial loads in food products. A rapid method (<15 min) has been developed to assess the microbiological quality of chicken carcasses using the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence assay. The results indicate that, following modifications, the ATP bioluminescence test produced an acceptable correlation with plate counts (r = 0.85, p < 0.001) and demonstrated good repeatability between replicates. It is envisaged that the modified ATP bioluminescence assay would best be used as a platform rejection test. Using threshold levels determined from the regression equation, the ATP bioluminescence assays gave about 90% agreement with plate counts for carcass rinses with counts above 5 × 10⁴ CFU/ml. These findings suggest that the modified ATP bioluminescence assay could be used for monitoring critical control points (CCPs) in programs based on hazard analysis of critical control points (HACCP).